Existing in an un-simulated reality

If a reality simulation isn't ever run, does it feel real to the actors inside it?

For a long time I've held a fairly unusual belief that explains why we exist. Without a formal, or even an informal, training in a related field I don't know whether someone else has argued the same ideas... but I wanted to put it out there to the internet and hear your thoughts.

My proposed theory is closely linked to the Simulation Hypothesis. The hypothesis assumes that given one state of human existence, it is possible to calculate a distinct next state. And then a state after that. That is, if we had a powerful enough computer to store the state of every single atom, and calculate their interactions, we could play through time in that existence. It would feel completely real to everyone in that simulation.

I believe that argument, but I’d like it to take it one step further. I believe it would feel real to everyone in the simulation, even if the simulation was never run. That is, you don’t need to calculate the simulation, in order for it to feel real for the actors inside it.

Let’s take a step back and think about a simple mathematical state machine. A machine where every distinct step, is a unit increment of the step before it. Something that looks like this:

Now without calculating anything, if we zoom in on the number 956,891 we’d expect exactly this:

Naming the states didn't create them. All possible states of this state machine exist, and existed before I wrote this essay. I simply believe if those states were much more complicated, complicated enough for actors inside it to feel conscious, they would feel conscious in their part of the state machine, and we wouldn’t really create it by calculating it. That state always existed in the infinity of possible states. And it felt very real to the people inside it.

At this point I want to be clear that this theory does not preclude choice. I don’t view our world as a simple state machine. Atoms, and sub-atomic particles, have chances of acting in different ways. There’s one potential next state where Schrödinger's cat is alive, and one where it’s not… but both could be calculated. And because they could be calculated, the answer exists. And because it exists, in an infinity of potential other answers, the feelings and thoughts of the people inside that universe exists.

Do we really need to calculate it?

Update: Thanks internet, comments on Hacker News pointed to the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, which seems to be a 1998 paper suggesting exactly this (still need to read more there).